


Moving Out (and On)

by Kantayra



Category: Dresden Files - Butcher
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-23
Updated: 2009-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-05 03:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kantayra/pseuds/Kantayra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ramirez discovers Thomas has easy access through Harry's wards. Awkwardness ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving Out (and On)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rodo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodo/gifts).



It took a few moments of panic after Ramirez pounded on my door to remember that, no, I did not have to hide the incubus in the bedroom anymore. The incubus was gone, and the coast was clear, unless I was worried about Ramirez seeing what a pigsty my place could become. Given that we were all guys, it just wasn't an issue.

"Hey," I opened the door for him, did a quick identity check, and dropped the wards.

"Hey," Ramirez agreed, thoroughly nonplussed by this standard security procedure.

"What's up?" I put on the coffee. "You want some?"

"That swill you make?" Ramirez made a face. "And you called me over, remember?"

I didn't remember so I opened the coffee can and breathed in as deeply as I could. _That_ would wake up even the dead. "Right," I agreed. "Trying to get a head start on the nasties. I didn't mean at far-too-early AM, though."

Ramirez snorted at me. "It's eleven."

"Is it?" Apparently, the clock was on the fritz again. It usually was. "Well, you know…"

"Lazy, bachelor bum," Ramirez smirked at me. "You need a lady to sort you out right."

"And you need a lady to 'sort' you _ever_," I teased.

Ramirez blushed. "There's nothing wrong with having standards, man."

"Is that was the kids are calling it these days?" I joked easily back. I was just setting in to enjoy my cup of coffee and spend a pleasant morning (well, technically, afternoon) with Ramirez ferreting out supernatural bugs throughout the city that the Red Court might be using to spy on my side of the war effort, when the front door opened.

Ramirez leapt to his feet and reached for the piece at his side. I froze, coffee cup halfway to my mouth. Thomas stepped casually into my apartment, blinked when he saw I had company, and looked like he was about to step right out again. Mouse stopped him dead in his tracks by bounding right up to Thomas, leaping into his arms, and licking him right across the face. Even Mister got into the action, twining around Thomas' feet in an effort to knock him flat on his ass.

"Uh…" I finally said awkwardly and flailed for an explanation as to why my exceptionally powerful and intricate wards hadn't vaporized the incubus who had just walked right into my home.

"Uh…" Thomas agreed.

"Uh…" Ramirez said as well. I wasn't quite sure where his mind was going just then, but I bet I didn't want to know.

"I invited Thomas along, too," I hastily explained.

"You did," Ramirez said incredulously.

"You did?" Thomas looked confused. I had no idea what he was doing there, but we pretty much had an open-door policy. Hey, for all I knew, he had just missed my scintillating company.

Ramirez looked oddly between the two of us. "Look, Harry," he said, sounding a little worried, "I know you've got all sorts of twisted deals with the White Court, and I usually don't say anything because you seem to know what you're doing."

Thomas snorted at that. I would've stuck my tongue out at him, except playing chummy with the incubus would probably make the whole situation more awkward than it already was.

"But I know how tempting…" Ramirez looked at Thomas warily. I knew there wasn't any bad blood between them, but that was usually during imminent crises, where Thomas' help was desperately needed. Hanging out with a White Court vampire during my free time was a lot less kosher. "Be careful," Ramirez warned.

Thomas smiled at him tightly. "Don't mind me," he said slightly. "I'm deaf, you know." It was the first time I'd seen Thomas get snippy about the big, whopping secret we were keeping from everyone. Annoyed at having to hide in the bedroom, sure. But downright snippy?

"Don't worry about it," I assured Ramirez. "It's nothing."

Thomas snorted again.

"Just let me finish my coffee, and then we'll go." I forgot for a second that Thomas couldn't just go and grab himself a cup of coffee himself with Ramirez right there. "Uh, Thomas, do you want…?" I offered belatedly.

"Sure," he said blandly.

"You can, uh, sit down, too." It was pretty weird inviting someone into a home that had been theirs until a few weeks ago. Of course, it had been even stranger back when Thomas had actually lived here.

Thomas sat down in the armchair across from Ramirez. Mouse proceeded to hop right into Thomas' lap, even though he was nearly as big as Thomas was, and rolled over onto his back for a belly rub. Ramirez snorted as Thomas set about to scratching Mouse exactly the way he liked to be scratched and Mouse's back leg kicked into the air rapturously in response.

I turned back to preparing another cup of coffee. Thomas' favorite coffee mug was still in my kitchen cabinet. It had a 'Vampires Suck' logo on one side, and '(Java)' on the back. Yeah, because _that_ would be easy to explain…

I pulled out a plain brown mug instead. I figured Thomas would forgive me: fraternal bonds and all that.

"The Foo dog sure likes you," Ramirez finally commented from the living room. I was just far enough into the kitchen that I couldn't see them, but I could hear them just fine.

"He likes anyone who gives a good belly rub," Thomas said lightly.

"Sometimes guys are dumb like that," Ramirez retorted.

I tried not to be mortified and failed miserably. Over in the living room, I could hear Thomas being quietly mortified, as well. Maybe it was genetic.

"That dog, though," Ramirez commented casually, "he has some common sense. If he thinks you're all right, I suppose I've got nothing to say about the matter."

Mouse's tail thumped loudly against the couch arm.

"I appreciate the thought," Thomas said dryly.

"But, er," Ramirez began awkwardly.

"If you make some threat about 'if you hurt Harry,'" Thomas informed him, "I will eat you for lunch."

"Right…" Ramirez agreed.

I finished stirring Thomas' coffee and raced for the living room before things could get even weirder. I arrived just as Ramirez was getting up.

Ramirez glanced at the two cups of coffee, then over at Thomas and Mouse, then back at me. "Maybe I should split," he said. "I've got some contacts I can catch up on while I'm in town, and I can get back here around…?" He left it open.

"That's not necessary," I assured him. "Thomas was just, er…"

"How about eight. PM. I will knock on your door at eight PM." Ramirez looked thoroughly embarrassed. "That okay?"

My shoulders slumped. "Sure. Fine." I handed Thomas his coffee and got up to let Ramirez back out of my wards.

"Seriously, Harry," he whispered to me once he was outside, "you gave him the key to your _wards_?"

"Don't worry about it," I insisted. "Really."

Ramirez looked like he'd worry about it a lot, but he just waved me away. I shut the door behind him.

"Oops," Thomas said eloquently once I rejoined him in the living room.

"Oops," I agreed.

"Hey, Harry," Thomas smirked.

"What?"

"If a man and woman get married in Appalachia, move to California, and get divorced, are they still legally brother and sister?"

I threw a pillow at him. "Incest jokes are _not_ funny, given the circumstances," I informed him.

"Oh, come on. They're at least a _little_ funny."

I smiled, too, because they actually were. "Well, at least we didn't blow our cover," I sighed. "Entirely."

"Yeah, good job coming up with a cover there," Thomas agreed.

"Oh, shut up. I didn't hear you doing any better."

Thomas shrugged. "It all worked out…sort of."

"We can always blackmail him," I concluded. "He keeps quiet about us, and I don't tell all the new recruits he still hasn't gotten laid."

Thomas snorted into his coffee.

I snickered, too. It was possibly hysteria. It was the only appropriate response.

"This isn't my mug," Thomas commented and downed the rest of the contents. At least _some_ people appreciated the 'swill' I brewed.

"I figured it'd be even harder to explain if it looked like we were shacking up."

"Yet oddly enough, nothing ever actually came up when we were."

"Oddly enough," I agreed. "So what brings you over? You picked a hell of a time, I have to say."

Thomas shrugged. "You're still holding my favorite coffee mug hostage," he answered.

I gaped at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

I couldn't help it; I laughed. Thomas laughed, too. Given how ridiculous our lives had become, it was a necessary survival skill.


End file.
